how Asians and Westerners think differently, part 3

I had just started writing about Bob and Lynn Koegel when I found Harold Stevenson's obituary, and interrupted myself to write a post on his life and death.

Getting back to the Kogels, when Lynn had her daughters she decided to see whether she could raise American daughters with Asian-style math skills. She put together a little neighborhood group of girls, and they did all kinds of embedded math activities involving cooking and anything else the girls liked to do.....and it worked. (Bob and Lynn created a form of behavioral treatment that's like John Dewey for autism, which in their case is a Good Thing. They're brilliant.)

I'll have to ask her for the details, which I've forgotten, but IIRC, every girl in the group grew up to be very advanced in math skills & performance--way past typical American girls, and way past brainy American girls, too. (I'll track this down!)

In any case, I do have a memory of reading that there is a sex difference on math in Asian countries, too, but only at the very highest levels of performance. Apart from that the sex distribution is exactly as Lynn described it; everyone assumes that math achievement is hugely a function of hard work, and everyone equally assumes that girls can perform hard work, too.

More Googling ahead, I can see that.


how Asians and Westerners think differently
how Asians and Westerners think differently, part 2
How Asians & westerners think differently, part 3
Harold Stevens, RIP
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creativity gap, part 2

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